MSCL may be gone from the tv screen, but there are lots of good (and bad) new productions airing each week. Talk with other MSCL fans about your favorite shows or the shows you hate. Of course you can also discuss TV show DVD releases here.

Did anybody else watch this past weeks ep of Gilmore Girls? There was a shot of Rory and Jess talkin and very very lightly hinting of sex... and I thought to myself, this could be MSCL with Rory as Angela if they'ed only take that step and deal with the harder issues. Don't get me wrong I love the show the way it is... Its entertaining as hell, but its still shallow when dealing with the issues that a real 16 year old deals with...

Not that I'm any kinda expert on what sixteen year old girls deal with, except that they had to deal with me and my other guy friends who had one thing hardwired into our brains... Not that its changed much in the twelve years since then, well except that we guys can now pretent to hold a conversation while still thinking about that one thing that haunts our minds!

"When I disagree with a rational man, I let reality be our final arbiter; if I am right, he will learn; if I am wrong, I will; one of us will win, but both will profit." - Ayn Rand

mglenn wrote:Did anybody else watch this past weeks ep of Gilmore Girls? There was a shot of Rory and Jess talkin and very very lightly hinting of sex... and I thought to myself, this could be MSCL with Rory as Angela if they'ed only take that step and deal with the harder issues. Don't get me wrong I love the show the way it is... Its entertaining as hell, but its still shallow when dealing with the issues that a real 16 year old deals with...

I have not. I think that the WB replay it on Sunday night, so hopefully I will be able to watch it then.

The show definitely needs to portray a more realistic Rory. Her and Dean just had no chemistry. I was a little pleased (even though I am a Dean fan) when Rory started to go for Jess, because at least they kissed a little more passionately.

"I have all these dreams where I know exactly what to say. And you tell me, you know, that you forgive me."

candygirl wrote: I already had to give up Gilmore Girls, but come on - can't they move ONE of these Tuesday night shows to another night or time slot?

Uh, that sounds really unpleasant. I hate it when tv stations put their best shows on the same time slot, just to beat the other tv stations in ratings. Usually no station really wins, but viewers always loose. Tivo isn't available over here (yet), but luckily I have a sat dish with several outlets so I can watch channel A and record channel B. I just have to remember to program the VCR, which I usually don't.

But at least there's Kazaa, IRC, Newsgroups, BitTorrent etc. to satisfy my need for new tv episodes I just need some time to watch it. (Still have the complete 2nd season of "Six Feet Under" waiting for me )

mglenn wrote:
Did anybody else watch this past weeks ep of Gilmore Girls? There was a shot of Rory and Jess talkin and very very lightly hinting of sex... and I thought to myself, this could be MSCL with Rory as Angela if they'ed only take that step and deal with the harder issues. Don't get me wrong I love the show the way it is... Its entertaining as hell, but its still shallow when dealing with the issues that a real 16 year old deals with...

Yeah, Gilmore Girls is IMHO a really "clean" and nice family show - suitable for all ages. Sex is okay for the adult Lorelai (but even here it's only mentioned when there's no way around), but Rory & Dean/Jess don't even seem to think about "ummmm-ing". It just so fits into this image of this little perfect town Stars Hollow where everyone is happy and nothing bad ever happens (Well, except for Jess ). There's not one gay character (although I'm not sure about that french guy at the Inn ), there are no poor people, no issues with guns, drugs, abuse, death, divorces etc. It just doesn't fit into that show. MSCL and other Bedford Falls dramas touched all these real-life topics. But maybe that's also the reason why MSCL was never a big ratings hit - when people come home from work, they want light entertainment on the TV, not stories with real problems. They don't want to be reminded of their "real" life fr a few hours. I guess people like MSCL fans are the exception

Unlike MSCL, GG is a show for entertainment, it's mostly a comedy. And it does that very well. Creator Amy Sherman-Palladino manages to write "Gilmore Girls" so hilarious funny and entertaining. Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel are amazing in their performances and I'm really addicted to that show.
I think they won't have chance to avoid the sex and other real life topics in Season 4, when Rory goes to Yale. I just hope they avoid the "Dawson's Creek" / "Sabrina" storylines instead. But with Amy Sherman-Palladino leaving the show to focus on the new "Gilmore Girls" Spin-Off this fall, I'm starting to worry... When J.J. Abrams left "Felicity" for "Alias" the show also crashed.

Oh, and I just have to mention this here: RIP http://www.thefutoncritic.com . The sudden and unexpected loss of this amazing TV resource website really surprised me. I didn't know that Brian Sullivan maintained this huge site all alone. It was always a must-read for up-to-date information about the TV business and was one of my most important TV bookmarks besides tvtome.com, zap2it and television without pity. And yes, I admit it: I'm a TV nerd

Last edited by Sascha (sab) on Jan 22nd 2003, 10:50 am, edited 1 time in total.

sab wrote:"when people come home from work, they want light entertainment on the TV, not stories with real problems. They don't want to be reminded of their "real" life fr a few hours. "

Sascha, I have heard people use this exact excuse before when I have asked them about a certain movie or TV series. On the one hand they will slam a show with things like, "Oh, that could never happen.....c'mon, get real." And the very next sentence they will say something like," I got a whole life full of problems and drama, why do I need to spend my free time re-hashing such things?". You just can't make 'em happy it seems.

Please lets all cross our fingers and hope that Gilmore Girls will not be come another Dawson's Place on the 90210 Creek !

As for the show I think it holds a fairly consistent emotional line with the lows being the car crash and Grampa's trip to the hospital.

Where as MSCL could take you to the depths of despair and then rocket you to an emotional mountaintop. But you can't really get to those peeks with out the descent into hell. Its what makes them so sweet.

So until Gilmore Girls begins to deal with the tough issues on a serious plane it won't be able to give us those same highs that we so love from MSCL.

"When I disagree with a rational man, I let reality be our final arbiter; if I am right, he will learn; if I am wrong, I will; one of us will win, but both will profit." - Ayn Rand

I started watching gilmore girls in the middle of season 1. I managed to get hold of the episodes so I could see them in the right order.
First season I loved the Tristan part. I loved the Dance epidode because I love the rivalry. I guess it's an unspoken wishful thought for myself but nevermind.
And at this time I accually skipped about a little between the episodes and saw the return of tristan in season two. The encounter in the store with Dean and Tristan was wonderful.
Anyway. I started looking back on the Rory/Dean story, when they meat and so on and I started thinking it was beautiful. It was a bit sneaky between them in the beginning too. A secret from Lorelai.
The finale of season 1 was perfect. I should not tell why for those who has not seen it but I loved it, and the song played at that moment.

The second season was mostly about Jess. I liked the rivalry from him too. He wasn't like tristan but he liked teasing Dean and that was funny.
But then I started feeling sorry for Dean because Rory stopped notecing him. I loved the "Back in the Saddle again"episode. It was soooo sad. I cried.

And then I had to wait a long time for season three over here. (acctually it hasn't been aired here, but what can a girl do).
When I finally saw it, it seemed to have changed. I can't put my finger on it but I get annoyed by Lorelai. It's not as funny anymore. She is boring and if I were Rory I feel like I would've lost my interest in being with my mom a long time ago. I feel like me, being Rory, want to get out of that place and seek new adventures, like going to Yale would do to her.
There isn't much happening with Rory and Jess and Dean seems so much more interesting now. I love the fact that they keep him around. I've read some spoilers too but I will not mention them now.
I like the Lane/Dave part too but it's going very slowly. Maybe that's just because it's a week between every episode.
So, I think the thrid season is going very much slower and not much is happening.
I think the school-scenes were more interesting when Tristan was around too but maybe we just need a pair of new characters to the show. In school and in town. We'll see what happens...

Ratings:
Season 1 ****/**** Funny as h*ll, love the coffeecups, Dean, Tristan.
Season 2 ***½/**** Interesting and new characters, Jess, more luke. Like the Kirk-role and Michel is great.
Season 3 **/**** Maybe I'm just not watching it the same way anymore but I definitley feel the same again every time the intro and theme song comes on.

Btw, wasn't Kirk introdusing himself as something else in the Pilot when he was delivering something to the Gilmore house from Emily? I think he said John or something.

I hated the whole Jess/Dean/Rory storyline. Rory was not being honest with Dean, and strung him along a little too long. It made me cringe. But I was relieved when Dean finally had enough of the Rory/Jess sexual tension at the marathon and broke up with her. When the writers introduced Jess, they tried to stupidfy Dean, so that the viewer would be behind the Rory/Jess storyline. Dean used to be smart, an avid reader like Rory, and he could deal with the Rory and Lorelai eccentricies (sp) like no one else, sans Luke. I hated the whole way they made Dean the bad guy, just to push Rory towards Jess. Blech. Not a Jess-fan.

Last night was good. Not enough Kirk, but him in the beauty shop was hilarious, painting those fake nails! It was too sad when Mrs. Kim said that David was not Korean, so Lane couldn't take him to the Prom. They are so adorable together, and Lane needs a little love on the show. I hope that she is able to take him.

Any Smallville watchers here?

"I have all these dreams where I know exactly what to say. And you tell me, you know, that you forgive me."

Megs, I usually end up watching Smallville even though I have designated Tues. as a TV-free night for me. It is a good show. I like Jonathan Kent b/c he doesn't look a day older than when he was on Dukes of Hazzard 25 years ago. Kinda keeps me feeling like maybe I haven't aged either. (yeah right). It is a cool show though.

I love Smallville. It is my guilty TV-watching pleasure. It has the potential to be so much more, but the writers fail to take it to that level each week. I have to admit that I have a crush on Lex Luthor and Bo Duke, er, I mean, Jonathan Kent. But that's not why I watch it... well, not totally.

"I have all these dreams where I know exactly what to say. And you tell me, you know, that you forgive me."

But then I could let the tivo's catch them and watch them on Wensday... would that count?

Yeah I guess that's OK . I actually tape Wed. night's shows and watch them on Thurs b/c I'm booked on Wed. nights. Mike, I thought you controlled the cable company.?...why don't you just run the shows when you want?

Mike, I thought you controlled the cable company.?...why don't you just run the shows when you want?

Ah... the myth of cable company control. The cable company controls very little of what you see. Its actually the networks that have all the control, and congress keeps giving them more. When your rates go up its ussually the networks that are the cause. Except for the off air networks like NBC ABC CBS and PBS cable companies pay per subscriber to carry network programming. ESPN is a big a%&hole when it comes to this... five years ago they charged under 20 cents per sub, now they want $1.30 or so per sub. And we have to pay it cause our subs would riot it we didn't carry it. It's all economics. But then there's the issue of cable companies that are owned by the networks like Time Warner and Comcast... they set all this up because they get HUGE tax loopholes for this stuff... right hand paying the left and such.

"When I disagree with a rational man, I let reality be our final arbiter; if I am right, he will learn; if I am wrong, I will; one of us will win, but both will profit." - Ayn Rand

i love gilmore girls, but you're right it has been different this season. they really need to do more with luke. we've barely seen at all this season unless he's pouring coffee. he just has really good comic timing. i also love dave and lane and hope they keep that up.

it will be interesting to see what they do next season with rory going to college.

Accually I really like the new Luke/Jess discussions about girls. The teasing.

I saw Dear Emily and Richard today and I was just wondering if anyone else noticed: I think when Rory and Lorelai sit at home in the sofa discussing Sherry, ... Lorelai in a quick sec calls Rory "Sookie".

Anyway, I think this episode 3:13 was a little better than the previous ones this season (except for the dance marathon break up) because Dean/Jess, Luke/lawyer/Lorelai, Miss Patty/constructions workers, Luke/Jess, Kirk at Luke's.
But yes, I agree, that Mrs. Kim is great. Last episode about Dave was good.